Middlebury College

Tag Archives: notes

Last Spring we gathered information on all of the services that make up our academic cyberinfrastructure, services and innovations for teaching, learning, research and creativity. This resulted in a long list of services in various stages of adoption. Since collecting this information we have merged it with the ITS Services Catalog, creating one huge list. This long list became unwieldy as spreadsheets, so we have put it into an application form that allows users to filter the list.

Now, we need your help before we share the inventory with the world. Some of the information has changed since the inventory was gathered, and there may be some items that we missed. Also, the application may not filter the information in a way that is useful to you.

Adobe Connect has been in Production for a few years. Adobe’s change in pricing structure, created impetus to review options. ITS was looking into options for unified communication with telephone which may have had some options.

Adobe price change caused review. What do we currently get from Adobe connect? Could be tied into replacement of legacy phone system, which had been previously reviewed and recommended, but not funded. Skype for Business was piloted, but determined not to be phone system for Middlebury. ITS Media Services was brought into looking into telephone systems which have some video conf features(presence, chat…).

If new phone system is funded it would have Jabber for video and chat.

Decided to pursue a separate product for academic web conf.

Zoom and Blue Jeans have similar feature set. Zoom is approximately ½ of the price of Blue Jeans, Blue Jeans has some features that Middlebury wouldn’t benefit from(ability to host 500 person meeting). Zoom would lock in price for a term. Blue Jeans would match Zoom for one year only, then increase to approximately $98k. Prior users of Blue Jeans have given negative review of product for meeting use.

Zoom feedback to date has been positive. Easy to start each course.

Joe A.

Reviewed spreadsheet of services we reviewed, initially 10 services. Narrowed to 3-4 offerings. Vidyo was dropped due to cost and inclusion of video conf equipment, older tool without modern feel. Down to 3 services.

ACTT had a “round robin” where over the course of a single meeting, we took a first pass of all the services, 15 mins per service with large group. Zoom, WebX, Blue Jean and Adobe Connect, tracked issues and reminded ourselves why we are departing from Adobe Connect. Follow up meeting identified Zoom and Blue Jeans, as preferred options. Zoom allowed everyone to be visible on the screen, Blue Jeans limited to 9, others would fall off. Blue Jeans prioritized quality to speaker. Zoom quality seemed more consistent. Moved forward with Zoom pilot, one class had already requested Zoom.

Joe A. demo review following Zoom practice. Recorded to test feature in Zoom.

Screen sharing allows option to present slides, but presenter remains in presenter mode for slideshow. May be allowed only with two screens.

Video of call participants can be turn on/off be each participant.

Power, Source, Filter: Vocal production of sound.

Explication of slides.

Played Ted video via Youtube.

Issue with getting video fullscreen, common with other video conf options. Need to share desktop to share full screen, can’t do it via application sharing.

Audio needs to be shared with application. Mack P. knows the tricks.

Video recorded as MP4 file. Pilot saved locally.

Pay version allows for cloud recording.

Dotty, Hebrew Course and Zoom.

Prefer freedom to do what they want with recordings. Exported out of Adobe Connect.

Improved entrance for students.

Less issues with bandwidth for international students.

Adobe Connect frequently had issues with Flash

Has been using Zoom in the ‘democratized’ format with similar size videos

Mack P. Review:

Mack P. has better success getting people up and running during meetings. 100% self starting

Been working well with Polycom room systems.

Polycom client often been blocked by firewalls of travelers.

Built in phone line has allowed people to call into sessions.

Sean M.:

Been testing Zoom during meetings

Preferred over Google Hangouts

Testing Friday with large meeting

Bob C.

Plans to test Zoom with Critical Issues Forum that previously used Adobe Connect, connecting with High School Teachers

This use case involves recording for viewing later, wants to pull prior videos from Adobe Connect

Did a test with Zoom recording which was positive.

Question how to view the suite of people of people coming into session, when something is being shared.

Option to raise hand is not readily visible.

Can make the active speaker large.

Need to develop best practices and training to go along with the tools.

Zoom does have a webinar format, which may have more participant functions.

How long to we envision best of breed for variety of use cases?

Polycom room equipment needed in room. Polycom servers contracted for 2 more years, Zoom maybe able to replace some of that functions.

Recap of original charge and proposal, history of project including Media Core process and funding. General consensus that Pantopo isn’t perfect but is pretty good, and definitely the best of all available options. The goal is to make a proposal for FY18 by January. Current Panopto contract runs through June.

Q:Will legacy streaming platforms, MiddMedia, archived items be a part of this process?

A:Not during this initial phase; with the decline in available data space, eventually we’ll need to examine those assets.

Rate of video storage has increased x20.

Most Panopto views are administrative, with some faculty using it for courses as well.

Students don’t have to leave Canvas to view videos in Panopto, but do have to log in again. Panopto creates a new user using single sign-on credentials. A Panopto viewer window embedded in Canvas will popup a login window; the issue is with what Canvas passes to Panopto. This issue is on Panopto’s development timeline, tentatively for late fall or winter. We’re meeting with them as well, working on code.

Embedding in WordPress doesn’t work, trying to write some code for that. We should be able to turn on a Panopto plugin for WordPress.

Some faculty are using Panopto at MIIS, have also used the webcasting feature successfully, including interactive and note-taking features. Sharing videos through a link has resulted in a good user experience. This is the legacy of Panopto as a lecture capture platform; perhaps we should talk about that while we’re talking about video conferencing. Should remember that Panopto charged based on views.

Q:Heather has asked whether we can embed Panopto on Sharepoint pages

A: not at present.

Thoughts on recent training? Seems pretty straightforward. We have two hours of training left, most topics are also available through support documentation and video.

Windows version of Panopto software has many more features than the Mac version (e.g., the focus feature); we may get questions related to that difference.

Panopto rep did send statistics on first training session; the analytics are very thorough with very specific usage info. Panopto may have applications for original research.

Panopto is currently not embeddable in Drupal because of the way Drupal filters code, but other schools have solved this issue; may take some work to make it possible.

Searchability is limited to English only, users will need to upload a caption file for other languages. Users can also supply keywords to make videos more searchable.

Q: If we do additional training, can we focus on other features?

A: Potential for more creative uses than simply streaming video.

Lecture capture is a non-starter at Middlebury; faculty don’t want it and the costs were prohibitive. MIIS can still use it that way. May be useful for making guest speakers/special lecturers available to students abroad.

Part of the proposal to continue Panopto would be a 3-5 year commitment to encourage user investment in the platform.

Media workload at MIIS is increasing, so we’re looking to Panopto as a possible assist in that regard. The goal is for self-service, self-empowerment. Lots of need to cover recurring classes, to record and make available later, which has been difficult to staff and organize. There may be some capacity to use Panopto to automate some of that process, but it would require upgrading a space to achieve it.

Feedback on Panopto has been generally good, and good enough to go forward.

A: They can be exported as .mbz files, we may be able to extract files and pages from them.

Q: Is that enough?

Review process may need to see student data, this is stripped on an import into Canvas

A: Segue model is probably not viable

Q: What hosting solutions are possible?

Local – considerations are that it needs to be set up the same way as the R-L hosted version. Adam will follow up.

Keep at R-L for a reduced cost. Joe will follow up.

MiddCreate – concern is the Moodle instance may be too big. Sean will follow up.

Q: How long do we have before an archive solution needs to be in place?

A: August 2017

Other considerations

Leng course content. Sean will follow up.

Chinese Placement Exam. ODL is working with the Chinese School to use the UNC hosted version of the adaptive placement exam for the near term.

This is the start of the conversation, please be prepared to discuss in the future.

ACI (Academic Cyberinfrastructure Inventory)

Doreen has been adding inventory items (THANK YOU!!!). She is currently working on the items in the ITS Service Catalog.

Joe will present the inventory at an all-Library meeting. Please share with people you feel are interested in the inventory, we would like to know how it can be useful. We also need to update the information and make additions.

Most of the dependencies are in the ITS list, these will be added.

Q: Should dependencies be a cascading or a flat list?

A: TBD these are the kinds of questions and discussions we want to have.

Needs taxonomy definitions.

Extended Team will be asked to review items from their area on a 2-4 times per year. The ACTT will update based on the progress of our evaluations.

Values

We engage in our work with Middlebury community partners, colleagues, and amongst ourselves with a collaborative spirit and a commitment to fostering and supporting agency, empathy, and curiosity on all sides.

Critical Thinking

We approach our work from a critical lens, taking into consideration the technical, administrative, as well as pedagogical sides of each recommendation to ensure that solutions truly address underlying needs.

Inclusivity

We strive to serve all our constituents equitably across campuses. This necessitates intentional and mindful communication internally, as well as with the parties represented/impacted by our recommendations and decisions.

Leadership

We lead and participate in complex evaluations, balancing the current needs of the institution with the need to change and innovate. We encourage exploration of what is possible, and inspire others to do the same.

Openness & Growth

We are open to new ideas, suggestions, and ways of doing things; continually inquiring and learning as individuals and a team.

Transparency

ACTT activities are accessible, discoverable and visible to the Middlebury community. Secrecy is utilized as little as necessary.

A: yes. Canvas can export an LTI report. Joe will run the report and share it.

Attendance tool was disabled, it creates conflicts with the gradebook. We’ll collect requests, examine the feature, and maybe address the conflict with education for the following semester.

Web Conferencing/Adobe Connect Replacement

Bob, Sean and Joe met with Petar and Mack to discuss a plan for looking at 4 services in a short amount of time. The hope is we can either eliminate a few, or identify one that is noticeably better than the others.

In one meeting the Extended Team and other guests will spend 10-15 minutes in each services, test features, then jump to the next service.

The invitation will be shared on the All Things Digital Slack channel, as well

Interested faculty can join via invitation.

Plan is to do this at the Extended Team meeting on October 4th.

Bob, Sean, Petar, Mack and Joe will design a detailed plan on October 3rd, Joe will share out with the meeting invitation.

We will have an open In-progress Project meeting on October 11th to discuss the results.

Next steps: Joe has drafted a recommendation and will be sharing for feedback, then we’ll decide how to move forward

Additional questions from the group

What was the process for Moodle/LTI? (Petar)

College only had one LTI request ever – no precedent

Replace “student data” with “protected data” in flowchart?

Comply with FERPA

Health data?

WordPress parallel – how do plugin requests get vetted? Do we need to be talking about governance processes more broadly? (Bob)

If we do approve the request, at what level does that take place? Subaccount? Everyone?

If the LTI has a cost, which budget would it come out of? (Mack)

Cost will be addressed on a case by case basis

Streamlining the faculty experience – should we try to ensure that this request process is similar to requesting WordPress plugins or Google Apps integrations (Zach)?

Joe’s gut reaction: we should stick to focusing on Canvas, the governance question is new to us. Let’s focus on success with Canvas governance and then think about how it could be a model for future platforms. We can have the conversation about Google Apps at a later date.

Currently no governing body that approves or denies WordPress plugin requests. There has never been a formal system for vetting requests beyond whether adding them will break anything. (Adam)